Yassin in every office. "He is our holy man," Mahmoud al-Zahar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, told me. "He is our " greatest martyr. T he principal Hamas leaders- Zahar and Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza, and Musa Abu-Marzuq and Khaled Mashel in Damascus-have - -t :-- .... - - -- -" ,. , I; ", '> .. .. . ., '\ .. "'- 4000 . , ., . , \ ..-- ::--' r ' '" ............. -- " " " ""4"" -: ., f. " -- l dominion made plain in their charter. Sheikh Nayef Rajoub is more typ- ical of the men and women of Hamas who will make up the majority of the next Palestinian legislature. Unlike the Fatah politicians, who have travelled the world, navigated diplomatic re- ceptions, and dealt closely with the Is- raelis for many years, they are provin- ..... .:..". . ... - ". :--. of a "worldwide historical wave." He said that Hamas, after years of keeping its distance from official politics, had decided to "accept the democ- racy game," and he was sure that if the same opportunity were available elsewhere in the Arab world Islamist parties would prevail. "The failure of all other ideologies is sending Mus- --... - - ...... ..: 1 .- r --- "' - .... - .... .... . " .. -. :.-. eo. .. .. . - ..' "1 .... .. ," .;" .. . '- .... ., t . \. r1t" '- ' ,,"- ..... ..... .. ...- - ..'" '... : ' \," '" . ; ; '- , . / (9 ( \ I 1 .... .... - - t -... . ...' v......-., .. ...;J4..........:.. . .... , . - .",. \ fibril Rajoub (left), a Fatah leader, lost his campaign; his brother Sheikh Nayef ofHamas, won the most votes in the West Bank. never feigned innocence of the attacks committed in their name, but they are fairly schooled in the arts of diplo- matic wrangling and media manipu- lation. Their public language attempts to yoke contradictory goals. Like the leaders of the I.R.A. decades ago, they are trying to enter the realm of pol- itics without relinquishing the per- quisites of armed resistance and the purity of ideological rejectionism. They want to maintain the support of their most radical fighters without losing the funding of the European Union. They hint at the possibility of a hudna-a prolonged truce-if Israel retreats to the borders that existed be- fore the Six-Day War, but they also reserve the "historicaf' goal of absolute ::c.:. A". - . \.... ..... .... ,'.- "'";"' . , ... C '\ _, '", . . . " -- ' ..... -,;" t .. ' . ".. '.. y f ,. , 1-" '1 ' 1.1' . -t:-'.. - è..... ..... 1;'."',Þ "y '. : . .& - J' ,/ - , I I ì I \ , " \ \ \ cial, inexperienced, and leery of the task of governing even a proto-state. Few polls showed that Hamas would win the election, and its leaders were as sur- prised as F atah or Israeli intelligence. But now Sheikh Nayefwas prepared to be magnanimous toward his more fa- mous older brother. "In the past, my brother and I had reasons for tension," he said as we ate the last of the mutton. "These days, our relationship is better than ever. We are civilized people, and everyone has his choice, including religion. My choice is Islam and ]ibriY s choice is something else. I think ]ibril did pray for a lit- tle while and then he stopped. It's sad .c " lor me. The Sheikh felt that he was part lims toward Islam, and this is the case in Palestine," he said. "Twenty years ago when I was working in the mosque, around a hundred and fifty, two hundred people came on Fri- day. Now it's a few thousand. At that time, there was only one mosque in Dura. Now there are twelve." Hamas even won a considerable crossover vote, polling well in cities with sizable Christian populations, such as Ramal- lah and Bethlehem. The Sheikh said he knew that, de- spite the heavy vote for Hamas, the ma- jority of Palestinians tell pollsters that they favor an end to the occupation and a two-state solution. But Hamas, he added, would "never" bow to Israeli, American, European, and even Egyp- THE NEW YORKER, FEBRUARY 27, 2006 63